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GLEANINGS 



FLORENCE CECILIA ROBERTS 




BOSTON 

THE GORHAM PRESS 

MCMXIX 



Copyright, 1918, by Florence Cecilia Roberts 



All Rights Reserved 

9 V 



NOV 18 1918 



Thb Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 



© CI. A 5 (K{)fj 2 4 



•^ 



Across the Spirit's ripened meadows wide 
With far-swung sickle and with giant stride 
The great, the towering poet reapers go. 

Behind, their humbler, gleaning brethren walkf 
Gathering the fallen grain and chance left stalk, 
For here, likewise, their Bread of Life doth groiu. 



CONTENTS 

Page 
Part 1. Poems of War 

Four Autumns 1 1 

The Democratic State 15 

De Profundis 16 

In Excelsis 17 

Part II. Poems Philosophical 

The Chalice 21 

Lines 21 

Nature 22 

The Warrior 22 

Reactions of a Mjstic 23 

Crowds 24 

A Father Muses 25 

The Iconoclast 25 

Martha 26 

To Little Paul 26 

Part III. Poems of Pity 

The Unfit 29 

The Idiot 29 

The Invalid 29 

The Mekncholiac 30 



6 Contents 

Part IV. Miscellaneous 

Page 

The Function of Poetry 33 

Wordsworth 33 

A March Night 34 

Elms 34 

Nocturne 35 

The Ballad of Witch Hager's Death 35 

The Sad Maid 37 

A Young Wife to Her Husband 37 

Love 37 

Death 38 

Old Age 38 

Love and Death 38 

Repression 39 

To a Friend 39 

Serena 39 

To a Violet Plant Breaking Through the 

Sod 40 

An Acknowledgment 40 



PART ONE 
POEMS OF THE WAR 



Now dies our vaunted age, upgarnered in Thy 
abysmal past. 

And we the i/nme/norial lesson learn that Thou art 
vast 

And unescapahle and strong, and that, blind shut- 
tles, we 

Forever weave the endless web of Thy eternity. 



Gleanings 1 1 

FOUR AUTUMNS 

{An Emotional Record) 

1914 

Amazed and mute, the zvatching generation stands 

and wonders 
To what eternal shores these volumed movements 

swell. 
What mighty mills are turned thereby, what awful 

Consciousness 
Doth know that all is well. 

A Prayer of the Peoples 

Give us, O God, a great man ! 

A man to stand above the passion shaken times 

Sceptered with Right! 

Above but not aloof: 

We want not desiccated learning now, 

Carping of causes and effects, 

And prating of a distant good. 

Our hour is on us and our need is sore. 

Our woes Thou knowest ; 

Unremittingly they rise and break 

Against Thy very throne. 

Our woes Thou knowest. 

O Thou, who gave to hold our sword of old 

A Cromwell, the Gracchi, yea, a Christ! 

O Thou, who once became a pillar and a cloud to 

guide, 
Who dropped the saving manna in the wilderness! 
Thou who hast ever succored, succor now! 



12 Gleanirujs 

1915 
"Pj-aci-!" 

"Peace!" thy less wise younger children cry, 

"Peace at any price!" And Peace is sweet, 

But this high price which they would have thee pay 

Thou canst not give. 
This priceless thing for which the centuries 
Have paid their mortal toll and thy own heroes 
Purchased with their blood — this is not thine to give 

But thine to guard. 
Whenever, my Columbia, in thy high moments, 
Thou hast heard that awful Voice speaking 
Which assigns the fates of states, its words were 

these, 

"Guard thou the rights of man." 
This is thy destiny, thy radiant duty. 
To shirk which w^ere to waste the piled treasure 
Of the past and rob the coming ages 

Of their legacy. 

1916 

Choose Well! 

Choose well, O holder of the vote! Choose well! 
The ballot has become within thy hand 
A winged thing to carry good or ill 
To far off time and many a far off land. 
Choose well ! Choose well ! 



Glean'mgs 1 3 

Toward the South turn thou thy ear and hear 
On plaintive winds that blow from Mexico, 
The voice of a mourning multitude which pleads, 
Oppressed with unalleviated woe, 
"Choose well! Choose well!" 

Or yonder turn where thunderous war clouds burst 
O'er massy forms in mortal struggle locked, 
And catch the warning clear, while crash on crash, 
The sky is shattered and the earth is rocked, 
"Choose well! Choose well!" 

Or, down the vista of our future dim, 
Behold the gathering strife 'gainst social w^rong, 
Where giant Discord strides with brandished torch 
And onward leads a riotous, trampling throng. 
Choose well! Choose well! 

Choose well ! Nor strike from off the vessel's helm 
Our master seaman's hand. The course ordained 
Is storm beset, but with his guidance we shall 
Reach the port unscathed and unshamed. 
Choose well! 

The Morning of November Eighth 

Dismayed, I watched our country's mighty face 
Lose calm ; saw hatred working there, 

And selfishness and greed and fear, until 
I turned away in sick despair — 

And lo! beheld tlie Spirit which I mourned 

As being dead or worse than dead. 
Stand calm as thy own mountain tops, O West, 

Where she for sanctuary fled. 



14 Gleanings 

1917 

The Test 

If you, my land, should fail in this great test-} 

If you should fail and all the lustre fade 

From out your flag, so future races gaze 

Upon its starry folds, unstirred and curious, 

As those who look upon some graven emblem 

Of Imperial Rome, unmindful that 

Innumerable human hearts once clung 

With love about that sign ; if you should fail. 

And through the world the stricken whisper run 

''America has been!" if you should fail, 

'Twould be — how shall I say? — 

As though a mighty poet died, the last 

Among his peers, and his passing needs must be shorn 

Of seemly tribute, since he alone of men 

Had held the power to meetly sing such passing. 



Gleanings 1 5 

THE DEMOCRATIC STATE 

Beneath my laws, upheld and strong, 
The myriad generations throng. 
Thy fathers were my care, ere thee, 
So may, God grant, thy children be. 
Throughout my spacious systems spread 
The greatest deeds of the greatest dead 

And the present deeds of the living great are mine. 

I am the earthly part of thee 
Approaching immortality. 
I am thy greater self: through me 
Thy works know not futility. 
Without my strong far-reaching levers 
Thy most powerful endeavors 

Were but writing on the rushing floods of Time. 

Mine is the ministering hand 
And mine the harshly stern command. 
Upon my mighty bulwarks rests 
The sacred ark of man's progress, 
Holding the sacred seed which grows 
Where e'er the blood of martyr flows. 

'Tis thine to guard, my children! It is thine! 



1 6 Gleanings 

DE PROFUNDIS 

It may be that my sumacs their accustomed splendor 

show J 
It may be that my barberries with gorgeous color 
glow ; 
I do not know. 
I only know 
That from a camp some miles away, 
Ten thousand soldiers march to-day. 

It may be in the hazy noon my half-stripped poplar 

sets 
The slender shadows dancing to its silver castenets ; 

I do not know\ 

I only know 
That o'er the haunted Death-dredged main 
A hundred laden transports strain. 

It mav be that the meadows and the hillsides, as of 

' old, 
Spread out green mantles now to catch the maples' 
scattered gold ; 
I do not know. 
I only know 
In France men die — while I breathe this breath — 
An unimaginable death. 

It may be parting Summer flings her largesse lav- 
ishly, 
Up the ravines and o'er the hills, on shrub and vine 
and tree ; 
I do not know. 
I only know 
That in the heaven overhead 
A god — my God — is dead. 



Gleanings 1 7 

IN EXCELSIS 

Oh, vSome may call these bitter 3^ears, 
Their thoughts being soured, perhaps, by tears, 
But I — I never hoped to know 
The world aglow and shining so. 
For from ten million blazing hearts 
The purging flame of sorrow darts 
And round the world a splendor sends, 
While every doorway lintel's cleansed 
With glorious sacrifice. 

Our feet, which wandered for a space 
With wayward dance and careless pace 
Down aimless paths, no longer stray, 
But walk the ancient holy way. 

O ye, who go with downcast eyes! 
Look up ! Behold the brilliant skies ! 
Behold the radiant road ye tread! 
Behold the shining goal ahead ! 
Rejoice that ye this way have found ! 
Be proud because ye touch this ground 1 
For, turn ! The martyr beaten track — 
See ! It stretches shining back — 
Straight back to Calvary! 



PART TWO 
POEMS PHILOSOPHICAL 

Your flesh may not express the luonder that ye are; 

Your mind may not think it; the eternal fabric 
Of your soul will live beyond the youngest star. 

Ye have no ivords to indicate its goal. 



Gleanings 2 1 



THE CHALICE 

Sternh', sternly, sternly hammer out your life; 
Grimly, grimly, grimly beat the rivets in; 

Shape the sides and shape the stem ; 

Round the base and round the rim ; 

Smooth it, trim it and emboss, 

Till it stand a finished cup. 
The Thing it is to hold, O man, is God! 

LINES 

(Upofi Reading a Novel Written i?i the Analytic 
Manner of the Day) 

O ye ! whose vision is so supernaturally clear, 

Who see through Love to Lust, who see through 
Law to Selfishness 

And everywhere perceive the marks of tiger fangs 
and claws ; 

How strange that I, who never had this gift of clair- 
voyance. 

Should yet possess the power to know one vision ye 
are blind to : 

Should see refulgent o'er this night of life the shin- 
ing goal 

Toward which man struggles ceaselessly. 



22 Gleanings 

NATURE 

Vast, inscrutable, unescapable! 

Our terriblest cries sink hushed in your capacious 

being; 
Our little lives are wrenched and flung from their 

foundations the while 
You imperturbedly smile. 

THE WARRIOR 

A Chant for Dancing 

From beast unto mankind 

Invincible I climbed. 

From caveman unto now 

The ages stretch, an endless span. 

Littered with foes o'ercome. 

First the elements I defied, 

Then I beat the ravening brutes from my side. 

And' I conquered heat and cold, 

And I mastered gloom and night, 

And the soil and the seasons 

I enslaved to my might, 

And Space unto my chariot wheel I chained. 

Then a thousand lesser enemies I tamed, 

Till Disease, itself, did yield unto my sway, 

And, of all that barred my way 

When I long ago began, 

One foe — one onlv foe — remains: 

'Tis myself! 'TisMan! 



Gleanings 23 

REACTIONS OF A MYSTIC 

To positivism 

B) piling tome on tome, 

By prying flesh and bone, 

By these and these alone, 

We may not come to Thee. 

But following Thine own clear ways 

Which Thou like lightning scars hath blazed 

Across our souls, — thus we may come. 

To the Nietzschean Philosophy 

Is there, then, no Love in Heaven answering mine? 

Are Mercy, Pity, Justice, celestial qualities, 

We thought, and all divine, 

But isolated things, set solitary 

Midst a world of opposites? 

Man's soul, which seemed an image of its Maker, 

Reflexed, if seen at all, in Nature? 

Nature! Man's soul's her crown! her pride! 
Poor Fear, depart! Fair Faith abide! 

To pragmatism 

For him the insect buzzings of the world 
Drown out the music of the spheres, 
Like one who, listening to a fly upon the pane, 
Misses the sound of music in a distant street, 
And, because the one he hears so plainly, 
Inclines to think the other does not exist, — 
This, methinks, 's a pragmatist. 



24 Gleaii'mgs 

In an hour of affliction 

Once, 

When my life seemed crushed as a crippled insect's 

Struggling in the grass, 

Or an anguished animal's, long trapped, 

Which lies at last quiescent, 

Having learned that movements lacerate, 

I seemed to sense an awful Presence near, 

To feel a gaze 

Beneficent and calm, 

And hear, — 

"I, too, have struggled, child, 

I know. 

From that — from that! — 

Am I God." 

CROWDS 

Ye Crowds! 

The wonder of you! 

The beauty of you ! The ugliness of you ! 

The joy of you ! The grief of you ! 

The humor of you ! The tragedy of you ! 

The nobleness of you ! The sordidness of you ! 

The hope of you ! The despair of you ! 

You men! You boys! 

You girls! You women! 

You babies and children ! 

And all your paraphernalia of dogs and horses 

And clothes and vehicles! 

Shuffling and tottering and lightly stepping 

And briskly stepping, — where? 



Gleanings 25 

Ah! There you are illumined, 

And I am gripped and held with the wonder of the 

thought 
That in the midst of you, somehow, 
God is working his will. 

A FATHER MUSES 

Strange, how such tender things will toughen one ! 

More than once this little fellow here 

Has squared my jaw and set me pushing hard 

Against surfaces that hurt. 

Some men, I know, are braced by other things ; 

Mostly by pride, I think, one way or another. 

Of wealth, — earned, given them, or stolen, — 

Or family or attainments. 

And that's not strange. 

For pride's a weapon fashioned by the fight 

And craftily adapted to its rules of thrust and ward. 

But that one should come to lean 

Upon these helpless pulling hands, — 

That's strange ! 

And yet — I wonder — 

Perhaps that old Christ legend after all — . 

THE ICONOCLAST 

Not by your priest-tended altars, 
Not where your chants are heard, 
Not where ye crowd in worship, 
Not there may ye hear my word. 
I speak from the halls of Karnak; 
I speak from the Stonehenge rings; 
I speak from the columns of Paestum; 
I speak from the walls of Rheims. 



26 Gl 



eanings 



Build ye your vaunting temples 

To house 5'our pitiful trust ; 

Pile to the sky your altars, — 

Lo ! passing, I hurl them to dust. 

I flee from your straining vision. 

From your creeds that are laid to ensnare, 

And ever your Holy of Holies 

Guards but the air. 

Know from your flaming temples, 
Know from your faiths which die, 
That ye are ye forever, 
And I, forever, I. 

MARTHA 

Gift-bearing Life! 

Reluctantly on some. 

On others bounteously bestowing, 

For others, then, those gifts for which they clamor; 

For me, my duty — flaming clear — 

And strength in measure. 

TO LITTLE PAUL 

(Studying chemistry) 

This chemistry Fd have you taught. 
Ere from Life's own grim lips it's heard : 
A word's more solid than a thought, 
An act's more solid than a word. 



PART THREE 

POEMS OF PITY 

O world, this is thy greatest shame 
( Unless it be ye feel it not a shame, 
Which were a greater shame, indeed) , 
That poets still may sing and sing and sing, 
And yet not si?tg ye into tenderness. 



Gleanings 29 

THE UNFIT 

"Too stiff and stubborn are these fiery souls; 
Break them, O Life, to my celestial ends." 
God speaks and casts them on the lap of Life. 
Life takes and breaks them on her wheel 
And gives them back to God. Then: 
*'Ye do your work too well, O Life. 
No brawn nor sinew left here. 
Cast them on the waste heap yonder." 

THE IDIOT 

Death, thou must be to me 
All Life refused to be: 
Lover and friend and babe, 
And every common thing 
Sweet Life to others gave 
Thou to me must bring. 

THE INVALID 

Again my soul, from its old prison, 
Hears footsteps, 
Lifts its head. 
And, palpitating, thinks: 
"This time the steps will stop; 
Chains clang down; bolts rasp back; 
Key grate ; door groan open ; 
And myself be bid forth, — free!" 
Again the footsteps pass. 



30 Gleanings 



THE MELANCHOLIAC 

AVhen I shall have died 

Weep not ye for me, 

But think: "This was a soul, 

Oppressed with griefs not all its own, 

And sunk in unimaginable woe ; 

Which, more than miser longed for gold. 

Or lover for his maid, 

Longed to lift the latch of Life 

And slip quieth- into Death." 



PART FOUR 
MISCELLANEOUS 



Gleanings 33 



THE FUNCTION OF POETRY 

Since thou companioned Milton's soaring mind 

Through Chaos and the dusky gates of Hell 

And past the unshaken mount of God, 

Not frequently hast thou maintained, nor well, 

Thy most exalted function, which is, I deem, 

To serve our thoughts as seemly garb 

For wear when handling mighty theme. 

So clad, they dare approach full many an awful 

Presence, 
Before whom cloddish Prose w^ould prostrate fall, 
And, wandering the sacred precincts o'er 
Of highest Consciousness, all fearlessly traversing 
Echoing court and corridor and vasty hall, 
And opening many an else forbidden door, 
May e'en surprise in her retreat 
The Soul of Music, 
Or catch the parting sound of Sorrow's feet. 

WORDSWORTH 

He sat his days mid mighty thoughts, 

The thundering of God's wonders 

Sounding in his soul. 

He sat his days enthroned above the clouds, 

Enshrined in light above the clouds, 

And yet did know the awful gloom 

Cast by those clouds below. 



34 Gleanings 

A MARCH NIGHT 

It is a large Olympian night, — 

Of dazzling moonlight, wind, and great white 

clouds. 
Some god has made it for a festival 
And now walks hidden in the luminous sky. 

O Thou! whichever of the ancient gods Thou art. 
Who bade the moon to carve from this familiar 

scene 
A miracle of silver and of ebony ; 
Who caused the winds to trample through the trees, 
Driving the stately clouds across the sky ; 
Who flooded all the heavens with light, 
Cleansing them of darkness till they glow 
Almost a noon-day blue, 
Unst'arred of all except their clearest gems, 

Thou! whichever of the ancient gods Thou art, 

1 hail Thee, Radiant One. and hail Thy works! 

ELMS 

{As seen from an automobile) 

There is a country road I know, 
All flickering shadows from a row 
Of elm trees planted where they grow 
At least a hundred j^ears or so, — 
Old padres with green gowns that blow 
And arms which reach above and pray. 
As speeding under them we go, 
"Benediciti!" they say, 
And, "Pax vobiscum!" 



Gleanings 35 

NOCTURNE 

'riu' niji'Iit is calm ; 

The shadows fall from leaves 

To moonlight blanched lawn 

Unwavering. 

The night is calm 

And only I am turbulent. 

Ah, night of peace, it cannot be 

That thou and I are part of one creation. 

Or, if it be, my soul would seem a fiery chip 

From some far sphere still nebulous, 

Dropped here by chance where vapory chaos ceased 

Long ages since. 

Sw^eet night! 

As if 'twere so, subdue me ! 

Subdue me with thy calm! 

Let thy smooth pulses yet more smoothly flow; 

Let thy pale gleams shine on, 

Untinctured by the lurid light I bring; 

Let thy soft voices murmur still around 

Until my tumult cease from very shame. 

THE BALLAD OF WITCH HAGER'S 
DEATH 

Oh, the rain it lashed and the wind it moaned 

Adown the black chimbley, 
But there's na friend in th' bleak, bleak wood 

To see Witch Hager dee. 



36 Gleauijigs 

Oh. the rain it lashed and the wind it roared 

Adown the black chimbley, 
But there's na friend, save her cats ten, 

To see Witch Hager dee. 

And one's as slim as the witch's hand, 

And one's as black as her ee, 
And one's as scraggly as her hair, 

And one's more grey than she, 

And one has een like the witch's fire. 

And one like the witch's own, 
And one purrs loud with the wind outside. 

And one purrs in a moan, 

And one treads soft, and one treads hard, 

And one treads full ghostly, 
But there's na friend in the bleak wood 

To see Witch Hager dee. 

"Oh come to me. Grimalkin Grey, 

And I'll lift the ban from thee, 
Sae there'll be one in the bleak wood 

To see Witch Hager dee." 

And thrice she waved her skinny hand. 

And thrice she rowed her ee. 
And there stood up a bonny maid 

To see Witch Hager dee. 

And thrice she waved her skinny hand, 

Thrice her een rowed in her head, 
And there stood up ten bonny maids 

To see Witch Hager dead. 



Gleanings 37 



THE SAD MAID 

"1 close my cen,"' the sad maid said, 

"I close my een and wiss I waur dead. 

I hear our trysty tre murmer and wave 

And I wiss it waur murmering over my grave. 

My herte's like the stane that wad he at my head ; 

My thoughts weigh me down like a casket of lead. 

1 wiss 1 waur dead! 1 wiss I waur dead!'* 

A YOUNG WIFE TO HER HUSBAND 

I sometimes tremble, love, when I remember 
That this beauty which you see in me 
Will one day be gone, 
While that quality within thyself 
Which endeared my beauty to thee, 
\Vill still live on. 

LOVE 

Such various things as Love can be 

To varying souls ! To you 'tis 

Sensual draughts drunk deep 

From burning eyes and flaming flesh, 

And to this other it is pride 

Of mastery and possession, while to mr 

'Twould be just a grateful space 

Where my soul might rest 

In its flight through Eternity. 



38 Gleanings 

DEATH 

Sometimes, when 1 am gripped close by Life and its 

hot breath 
Oppresses me, I think upon the spaciousness of 

Death ; 
Its dark far-stretching vastnesses and endless echoing 

shores. 
Just at the thought, my dulled cramped soul expands 

its wings and soars. 

OLD AGE 

'Tis not this body's growing old — 
It is not this I fear: 
The trembling step, the pulses cold, 
The vision grown less clear. 

It is the spirit's slow decay — 
From this I fearful shrink : 
To feel hope gone, mirth fled away, 
And haltingly to think. 

LOVE AND DEATH 

If I thought death to be the end, as some folks say, 
If I thought so, and you should die, then I would 

pray to live alway. 
For if it were the end, and you were dead, Beloved, 

and I dead too, 
r should have lost even the memory of you. 



Gleanings 39 

REPRESSION 

A day and night my thoughts were filled with thee : 
The sense of thee clung perfume like through all my 
mind 

A day and night. 

And another day began 
Before I knew that thou could 'st never see 
The glimpse of golden Paradise which was revealed 

to me, 
And all my little joys died within my strangling 

hand. 

TO A FRIEND 

Weary with gazing on this life, — 

A dull colored fabric unrolling beneath my eyes, 

Ugly to look on, coarse to touch, — 

Suddenly I find thee, — a golden broidered pattern 

in the cloth ! 
Think not I stop at marvelling 
What accident of loom had placed thee there ; 
Nay, friend, I cut thee out and wear thee next my 
heart. 

SERENA 

By what untroubled waters grew your soul? 
Beneath what tranquil clime's control? 
What gentle spirits bred you in their ways 
Of calm content and unperturbed days? 

Although you do not know or dare not tell 
A secret so ineffable, 

Your crystal soul, unconscious, doth declare 
The angels have laid delicate fingers there. 



40 Glea?iings 

TO A VIOLET PLANT BREAKLNG 
THROUGPI THE SOD 

Tin}, triumphant Proserpine! 

Exultant on the air you fling 

A silent epinicion ; 

And to my inward ear you tell 

How, for a time, you needs must dwell 

Beneath the sod with all the dead. 

And (joyously, joyously do you sing!) 

How you yourself fought death and won. 

Then from the dark and cold earth fled. 

Trembling, to re-greet the sun. 

Lo! little victor, I too sing 
The miraculous awakening. 
I hail with joy 3^our ended strife, 
And 5'ou I hail Indomitable Life! 

AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

"How wise you are!" said little Rose, 

Agape before the folios 

Spread out upon my desk's expanse. 

I proudly smiled, nor told her that 

The volumes she was gazing at 

Mere props were to my ignorance. .\ 

A tome from my omniscient friend 

Britannica (edition ten), 

A Neivcorner, a Wi'lte/s Guide, 

A Woolley's Handbook, by its side 

A corpulent lexography, — 

I name these, reader, as I should, — 

As any honest author would 

An aidful bibliography. i 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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